How To: Create Your Publishing Schedule and Pre-Prepare Content [Blogger Broadcast]

 
Posting regularly and consistently is crucial to your success as a blogger. I find that some of the most successful blogs post at least five times a week. This way, it is common knowledge that there will be a new post up and ready for reading at a certain time every weekday. 

The old saying that ‘Content is King’ is extremely accurate when it comes to blogging because when you think about it – these features are the backbone of your business. It is important to persevere and to keep to your posting schedule without fail. To make sure you stay on track, be sure to schedule. So, what happens when you need to get all of this content published regularly but you are experiencing writers' block or struggling to produce quality work? There are three key tactics that I lean on to keep up with the task of writing content.

1. Find your point of difference
The thing that makes the blogging industry so endlessly entertaining is the different perspective that everyone brings to the table. If everyone were a carbon copy of each other, blogs would extremely boring to read. Readers become attracted to certain blogs whether it is due to writing style, photography, humour, easy navigation; the possibilities are endless. It's all about finding your unique voice, styling your own photos that represent you and writing in a way that connects you to your niche audience.

2. Have a blogging book

I have both a blogging and YouTube book where I write my ideas when inspiration hits. You never know when you are going to get the next amazing idea for a post, so set yourself up for success and be prepared to write these concepts down when they do come to you. An example of this was this morning when I actually had a ‘aha’ moment while I was applying lipstick wondering which shade would make my teeth look whiter. I decided it is something I am going to have to research, look into and then come back to you guys with my findings. Quite often, what you are interested in or asking questions about is usually what those around you are also seeking to find more information on. After discovering this struggle of my own, I made sure to write it all down in my book because there is nothing worse than forgetting and letting the blog post idea slip away forever.

3. Write when you are in the zone

My best content comes when I am truly inspired so I have learned that when I have that motivated feeling to write I keep writing until the feeling passes. Honestly, the difference is insane between writing when inspired and forcing yourself to write because you need a post-up. That's why scheduling these posts is such a great idea, because you have that catalogue of potential posts to fall back on when you aren't in the mood to write.

These are three practical ways that can help you improve your blog and write better blog posts. Finding your point of difference will help excel your blog to become more successful. While writing in the zone and having a blogging book will make sure your blog posts are the best quality they can be! 

Scheduling

One of the most helpful ways to keep to a plan and make sure you never miss a day is to schedule. I recommend having a spread sheet that outlines what you already have scheduled, what posts you have taken photos for with an estimated publish date, which blog posts you are working and the day you want to schedule them into. This way when it comes to scheduling on your actual blog, you know what posts are ready to be published, which ones need to be written, and which ones still need photos. 

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but a colour-coded spread sheet helps, where you can write the titles of your upcoming posts and place them in slots according to the date you want to schedule for them. You can have a colour for each of these processes (e.g. pink for an idea that still needs photos and writing, blue for a post with a photo that needs writing, yellow for a post which is ready to schedule, green for an already scheduled post). This method of organisation ensures that you know exactly where your blog and all of the content is going. This way, if you are in the mood to write, then you know what posts need to be worked on. 

This is particularly useful when it comes to the photography since you can shoot numerous posts in one go because you know which posts still need photos. Organising like this is key to running a smooth and successful operation, as well as keeping your sanity amidst the messiness of scheduling and moving things around. I also find it a great way to visualise your content and see what kind of topics you will be posting that week. I like to mix it up a little, so I never have two ‘lip swatch' posts in a row, or two fitness pieces one after another (unless it happens to be ‘Lip Product Week' or ‘Fitness Week'). 

Making sure that you have a consistent level of variety, from week to week, means that you appeal to a larger audience, and more people will be happy to read your content. You would be surprised by the number of times that I have had to shift things around because I have accidentally scheduled two posts on the same brand or on the same type of product one after the other.

Pre-Prepared Content

This is a practice that will seriously test your organisational skills because it involves putting together content months in advance, but it comes with some very real benefits. I always have my blog posts scheduled and ready to go two months in advance, but often I have content prepared around three months in advance. 

What this means is that these posts are written and ready to go; they are even scheduled for a particular time to go live, but that is not to say that the plan is set in stone. I always leave my content calendar flexible and open to changes, since you have to account for new product releases, time-sensitive articles or collaborations with brands. In this case, I simply reschedule the post to make space for a different feature and find a new slot for the pre-prepared post. Preparing your content in advance gives you more time to think about the kind of content you are putting up and to evaluate any changes you might want to make. Let me give you a real-life example of this, so you know what I mean. 

This year I was preparing my Christmas content in September, and although it was my intention to write a gift guide, I was able to look at my content calendar and see that I could fit in around four different gift guides tailored specifically to different categories: budget, stocking-fillers, high-end, ‘splurge’ items, etc. Preparing this far in advance also allows you to get in touch early with PR companies, to ensure you get all of products you need for the article in time. 

Of course, the main benefit of pre-prepared content is that you will always have a safety net and something to fall back on and you’ll never leave your blog frozen in silence.

www.probloggercareer.com

Blogger Broadcast is a blog series dedicated to helping build and grow your blog, YouTube channel and social media influence. Each instalment of this series will bring a new topic, dishing the dirt on everything you have always wanted to know about becoming a successful social media influencer and addressing pain points aspiring bloggers may be experiencing. 

This series is based on my book ‘A 3 Step Guide to Turn Your Blog into a Career’ where each chapter addresses a small yet critical portion about being a blogger and when combined puts together a full picture of the industry as well as a clear path to follow for success. The included resource pack allows you to work through activities that equip you with the skills required to prepare you for your career.

You can visit Pro Blogger Career HERE, join the FB Community HERE or purchase the book HERE.